Anti-Modi political constituencies are linking his church visit with the assembly elections to be held in Kerala next year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in a prayer meeting at a church in New Delhi on Thursday during the Christmas festival has become a topic of praise and discussion on social media. While his move has been praised at the social level, Hindu extremists have also expressed disappointment and unhappiness over it. Anti-Modi political constituencies are linking his church visit with the assembly elections to be held in Kerala next year. It is being said that the Prime Minister is an expert in opportunism and has chosen the path of pleasing the Christian community as part of a strategy to strengthen the BJP's good performance in the recent municipal elections in Kerala and to raise the BJP as a third party in the assembly elections next year.

Such thinking cannot be called wrong from a political prism. It is a fact that the performance of the BJP in the municipal elections in Kerala was truly remarkable. Apart from winning the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, the party won six other municipalities and won 320 more wards this time than in the previous municipal elections. The BJP's vote share of 14.76 per cent, compared to the CPM's 29.17 per cent and the Congress' 27.16 per cent, is a politically significant achievement.

In the previous municipal elections, this percentage was 4.1. This is the reason why, despite not having a single member in the Kerala Legislative Assembly and having only one representative from that state in the Lok Sabha (Union Minister Suresh Gopi), the BJP is dreaming of playing the role of a 'kingmaker' in that southern state next year. It is also believed that a section of Kerala's Christian population, which constitutes 18.38 percent of the total population, is leaning towards the BJP and Modi saw fit to give momentum to this trend by attending the Cathedral Church of Redemption. This church (sect) that considers Catholics and Protestants to be the same has a large number of followers in Kerala.

In a context that deviates from such calculations, the Prime Minister's step is noteworthy because he considered it appropriate to go beyond the narrow theoretical and ideological circle of the Sangh Parivar. Although RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said many times that in the eyes of the Sangh, all citizens born in India and who adhere to Indian ideology are Indians, this statement has not become a part of the ideological traditions of the Sangh till date. Its affiliates, especially the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or Bajrang Dal, have made it their mission to consider Muslims and Christians as followers of foreign religions and to make them targets of discrimination and violence. This is the reason why the number of BJP legislators belonging to the Muslim community in the entire India does not even reach double digits.

The number of legislators from the Christian community is relatively high because the North-Eastern states, especially Nagaland and Mizoram, have a majority Christian population and even in Goa, it is not within the BJP's power to form a government without the support of the Christian population. That is why most BJP leaders have been avoiding speaking against the Christian community for the last several years. Mr. Modi had kept himself away from promoting the Abrahamic communities for the last 10 years. But the 2024 parliamentary results showed that elections can be won once with a purely Hindutva agenda, but not every time. The impact of the demands associated with this reality has now started to be seen.

However, the Prime Minister's church tours and the teachings of Hazrat Jesus as a guide for creating a harmonious society is a meaningful message. It is to be hoped that he will adopt a similar approach towards the Muslim community and not remain limited to symbolism. The slogan 'Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas' will seem genuine when the perspective of BJP politicians towards this community also changes. The sooner this process starts, the better for the nation.